Sheeting in which an image of a pattern or legend is built has found a number of important uses, particularly as distinctive labels useful to authenticate an article or document. Such sheeting has found use as validation stickers for vehicle license plates and as security films for driver's licenses, government documents, phonograph records, tape cassettes, and the like, as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,154,872; 3,801,183; 4,082,426; and 4,099,838. In each of the patents, the built-in images must be incorporated into the sheeting while the sheeting is being constructed.
Sevelin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,183, discloses a substantially transparent sheeting to be used as an overlay on a document such as a credit card, a pass, a license or phonograph label to serve as an identifying or authenticating means. The sheet is retroreflective over its entire surface area and contains a retroreflecting pattern or legend which is obscure in that it is invisible or only faintly visible to the naked eye under diffuse light and does not obstruct any underlying visual information.
Nordgren, U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,872, and Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,426, teach other retroreflective sheets containing images that may be obscure, which sheets can be adhesively bonded to documents to make counterfeiting more difficult. The imaged sheets disclosed in those patents are not transparent, however, and so would obstruct information over which they were applied.
Other methods have been developed which use laser irradiation of a sheet material to form directional images therein. These methods rely on opaque masking layers to focus the laser light to a damage locus within a monolayer of microlenses, or to themselves absorb radiation and develop deformations which are viewable as a directional image. If a transparent sheet containing a directional image is desired, after formation of the visible deformations, the opaque masking must be removed.
Galanos, U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,875, discloses a method of forming directional images in opaque retroreflective sheeting which comprises a specular reflecting layer disposed behind a monolayer of glass microspheres. In that method, laser irradiation of the retroreflective sheeting in an imagewise fashion causes structural alterations or modifications in the sheet which are viewable as directional images. Because the Galanos sheeting is opaque, it would obstruct underlying information if adhered to a document as an overlay.
Hockert et al., Jap. Appln. No. 19824/84, filed Feb. 6, 1984, Kokai No. 148004/84, laid open Aug. 24, 1984, forms a directional image in sheeting which comprises a monolayer of microlenses, a masking layer disposed behind the monolayer of microlenses, and a transparent spacing layer located between those two layers. Laser irradiation of the sheeting forms openings in the masking layer which are visible as a directional image. By coloring the transparent spacer layer through the openings and then removing the masking layer, such as with a chemical etch, one can obtain a transparent sheet containing a directional image. The sheet may then be adhered to a document as an overlay which provides a secure means of authenticating the document without interfering with the normal use of the information contained thereon.